PITTSBURGH — For the first time in his NFL career, Markus Golden took the field at the UPMC Rooney Sports Complex as a member of the Pittsburgh Steelers after he signed a one-year contract with the team last week.
Golden, who has played with both the Cardinals and Giants, has plenty of connections with the Steelers. His former roommate at Missouri, Denzel Martin, is the team’s outside linebackers coach, and so they are reunited. Golden joins the team after a few strong seasons in Arizona, including an 11-sack season in 2021.
The Steelers will likely use Golden as their No. 3 outside linebacker behind starters T.J. Watt and Alex Highsmith, a role that the team has had trouble filling since Highsmith was elevated to a starting job in 2021. The Steelers tried Melvin Ingram in that role in 2021 and Malik Reed in 2022, but neither player was able to have much success in Pittsburgh behind the pair of bookend stars.
Regardless, Golden is now in Pittsburgh and ready to go with the team he wanted to get drafted by when he was coming out of college. Along with him, guys like Quincy Roche, DeMarvin Leal, Nick Herbig, and others should have a strong chance to compete for the jobs behind him. However, he will now be a veteran presence with the team that is expected to be a strong contributor as a rotational edge rusher.
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